Speaker Chantilly gets straight to the heart of the matter at education awards

The journey from raw to real compassion by heart surgery survivor Chantilly Milverton (20) stirred the emotions of guests at the 2015 Education Awards.

Nominees, award sponsors, judges and the rest of South Holland Centre’s function hall feel silent as Chantilly, a laboratory analyst and keen sportswoman from Boston, told her story of “flatlining” during a heart operation at the age of 15 three years ago,

Chantilly said: “When I was 15, I began to take football very seriously and wanted to be scouted by a good team in the future.

“But I began to notice fluttering sensations in my heart and when these happened, my T-shirt would bounce off my chest and my cheeks would go red.

“When my mum found it, she insisted that I should go and see a doctor who ordered a series of tests to be carried out which found that my heart wasn’t beating regularly.

“I was then advised to see a heart specialist at Glenfields Hospital, Leicester, where it was decided that I needed heart surgery at the age of 15 which set me back.

“The surgery took place in June 2012 when I was taken to a theatre and got on a tiny black bed for the nurses to put wires all over me.

“Before heart surgery, my attitude to sport was ‘if I can’t win then I’m not doing it’, but the next thing I knew was when everything went white and the nurse said ‘she’s flatlined’.

“When I came back to life, all I could hear was people shouting and after 30 minutes, we agreed to end the surgery.

“I’ve learned that your happiness is the key to life and everybody else’s.”